Page 16 of My Ruthless Alpha

It all seemed like such a mess, and I didn’t want Margo to grow up with that kind of confusion.

Clearing my throat, I reached for our bag and pulled out her pajamas. “He’s a friend of mine.”

“Is he a new friend?”

I shook my head. “No…I knew him before. That’s why he’s letting us stay here.”

Margo nodded to herself, brows furrowing in thought as she pieced her words together mentally first. “Are we staying here long?”

Unsure of how she would react, I settled on another vague response. “We’ll see.”

She didn’t seem entirely satisfied with my answer, yet she didn’t question it either, and as quickly as the thought appeared, it seemed to vanish again. Her attention was quickly averted once more, much to my relief.

Before long, I got Margo dressed and ready for bed, then tucked her in and placed a gentle kiss against her forehead before I got up and left the room again.

While I didn’t want to upset Margo since she seemed to have fun at Beau’s place, I didn’t let her know that my mind was already made up.

I knew that staying would only make her more attached to the place, along with Beau and Miles, but we couldn’t stay forever. It was better to rip the bandage off.

I couldn’t handle the messiness that came with staying under his roof. Given our history and all the complicated feelings that flooded in at the same time, I didn’t want to push my luck and make it even worse.

It was hard enough to go through that rejection the first time around…I didn’t need to keep reliving it.

Pulling in a breath while I moved down the hall and approached the kitchen, I found Beau standing over the counter while he cleaned up after dinner and wiped down the surfaces. He glanced over at me.

“Has Margo gone to bed?”

I nodded and took a few more steps, maintaining a healthy distance between us. “Yeah…she was pretty tired from today.”

“I’m glad to see she was having fun. We don’t exactly have any kids’ things anymore, but she seemed entertained anyway,” he said lightly as if it was a typical, mundane thing for us to discuss.

There was something strange about it—us talking about Margo like he knew everything, and we were living like a normal family. But it was far from the truth. Virtually nothing was settled between us, and I couldn’t shake off how weird and awkward that state of limbo felt.

Not sure where to start, I averted my gaze and sighed. “We’re going to head out tomorrow.”

Beau paused what he was doing and looked over at me, almost with a skeptical look mixed with the desire to object on his tongue. “What?”

“We’re leaving…I appreciate your help, but the two of us need to keep going,” I replied, doing my best to stick to my guns, regardless of the way his displeasure in hearing that only seemed to deepen the more I spoke. “We’re going to try and make it on our own somewhere else.”

Beau’s brows furrowed, but otherwise, he managed to keep his expression mostly neutral. “Where are you going then?”

“I don’t know…just somewhere.”

“Somewhere? You don’t even have a plan?” Beau asked incredulously, allowing more irritation to spark despite speaking in a hushed tone.

I forced out a breath and crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t want to hear anything about it from him, even if it was true…I didn’t have a plan.

“No, I don’t…but I’ll figure it out. I always do.”

Beau scoffed. “But you don’t need to wing it. I’m not forcing you out of here…you don’t need to leave.”

My irritation flared at his insistence. Even if it was nice, and he was trying to help us out, I didn’t have him to give me a solution. I just wanted him to let me go and not try to argue against my decision. “I agreed that we won’t stay long from the start. It’s not like this is sudden.”

He took a step closer. “Do you really think hauling Margo back through the woods while you aimlessly search for somewhere else to stay is ideal?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t tell me what’s right for my daughter.”

Remembering himself, Beau sighed and shook his head. “I’m not trying to tell you how to parent…but you don’t need to do this. You can take some time to think things through before you make any major decisions.”

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